C.P. Spencer

C. P. Spencer (born Crathman Plato Spencer, January 13, 1938 – October 20, 2004) an Oak Park resident was 65 when he passed He was an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a native of Detroit, Michigan. Best known for being a member of the Motown quartet The Originals. He was also an original member of both The Spinners and The Voice Masters.

He started singing with the Voice Masters, a group who evolved from the Five Jets and were one of the first groups that Berry Gordy used on sessions. Core members Crathman P. Spencer, Walter Gaines, and Henry Dixon were led by the dynamic leads of David Ruffin, Ty Hunter, Joe Charles aka Joe Murphy, and Lamont Dozier.

Along with Freddie Gorman, Hank Dixon and Walter Gaines, Spencer was signed to Motown in 1964 by producer Lamont Dozier. While cutting some sides on their own, they sang backup on sessions from 1965 to 1969.

The Originals scored their first big hit on their own with “Baby, I’m For Real,” in 1969, a song written and produced by Marvin Gaye.

It was Ed Love, then a disc jockey on jazz station WCHD, who first played “Baby I’m For Real” in Detroit at the request of Gorman, who worked with Love at the post office.

It wasn’t intended to be the single, but the group liked it, and listeners went crazy for the song, and Spencer’s lead vocal.